A quarter of Spotify users now use podcasts there too

• 25% of the 345m monthly active Spotify users now use the app to listen to podcasts, up from 22% the previous quarter. Speaking on the company’s Q4 2020 earnings call, Daniel Ek said he’s “reasonably confident” that he can see benefits in user growth and retention from podcasts.

  • Ek hinted that Spotify may be able to allow podcasters to monetise their shows on the platform through a set of new business models. “I hope to be able to talk a little bit more about what our plans are in the near future on that.”
  • Spotify says it has 2.2m podcasts in the system (Apple has 1.8m).
  • The company also denied that the increase in podcast use would result in a lower payout to record companies.
  • Podcasts were mentioned 47 times in the earnings call.

• In Denmark, 27% of adults (15+) listen to podcasts every week. That is 3 percentage points up from last year, according to new data from DR. Spotify is the market leader in the country. There’s a full interview with the researchers in the Podland News podcast later today.

• Acast’s programmatic ad sales revenue grew 215% in 2020, the company has announced.

• PodcastAddict now supports the new podcast:location tag. Buzzsprout also supports it (for whole podcasts, rather than individual episodes); and Podnews podcast pages also support that, like this from North Idaho Now.

• PodLP, a podcast app for the KaiOS platform, has now been downloaded 5m times on Jio, an Indian mobile network. (We list how to submit your podcast to PodLP in our list of podcast directories).

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• Radio France has signed an agreement to put its podcasts on PodcastAddict. The broadcaster is unusual in restricting its RSS feed addresses from the Apple Podcasts API - so Culture en Direct, as one example, can’t be played from services that use it, like our own website.

• Headliner, a social podcast promotion platform, had more than 272,000 new users in 2020.

• Joe Budden has signed with Patreon.

• In Canada, the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group has signed with Triton Digital for podcast hosting, monetisation and measurement. You can take a deep dive into Triton Digital’s podcast metrics platform on the Sounds Profitable website.

• In Argentina, news channel TN has launched TN Podcast, its own podcast network.

• ESPN got 500m downloads in 2020, a yearly increase of 28%.

  
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• Ariel Nissenblat has launched a newsletter, Podcast Plunge. Each issue is anchored by a podcast episode, and then focuses on other pieces of internet about the main topic of the show.

• Comeback Stories is a new podcast from Darren Waller and Donny Starkins. Waller’s comeback story from drug addiction was a big hit on YouTube; and now they’re getting others to tell their comeback stories. (The podcast has, unusually, deliberately launched on Apple Podcasts only).

Tips and tricks

• How to think about Clubhouse audio strategy (Pacific Content)

• Easy solutions for soundproofing a room with things you already have (Stop Making Sense Productions)

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Spotify For The Record will post a new episode today with CEO Daniel Ek and CFO Paul Vogel on their Q4 2020 earnings report.

Mea Culpa with convicted criminal Michael Cohen features an interview with Stormy Daniels, in case you still cared about any of that nonsense.

Podland has interviews with Anna Sian of Anchor on their redesign; Peter Niegl and Rasmus Kidde from Denmark Radio on new podcast consumption stats in the country; and Sounds Profitable’s Bryan Barletta on his news podcast this week.